The Journal of Politics· 2026Q1
The seniority ceiling: Why some immigrants struggle to rise in political office
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
A seniority ceiling, requiring time in lower positions, explains about half of the gap in political office holding between immigrants and native-born Swedes.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Seniority-based promotion structures create a "seniority ceiling" for immigrants in politics.
- This ceiling explains about 50% of the gap in political office holding between immigrants and native-born Swedes.
- The seniority ceiling disproportionately affects immigrants who arrived more recently or at older ages.
- Selection effects at both individual and group levels are observed.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
First-generation immigrants face a seniority ceiling that limits their political incorporation as candidates and officeholders. Career ladders that require qualification time in lower positions create structural barriers for this group. We use linked data from Swedish electoral ballots andadministrative records to examine this idea. A novel identification strategy isolates the effect of seniority-based promotion structures from immigrant-specific disadvantages by comparing immigrants’ incorporation patterns to those of internal movers—native-born Swedes whorelocate between municipalities. The seniority ceiling explains about half of the immigrant-native gap in holding political positions and almost the entire gradient of worsening incorporation at higher levels. We find strong selection effects at both the individual and group level. The seniority ceiling restricts incorporation at higher career steps for those with fewer opportunities to accumulate qualification time: those who arrived more recently or at older ages.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. The Journal of Politics, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International RelationsSocial Sciences